Startxfce4 unable to load failsafe session as non-root user
I'm working on a (B)LFS build, and I'm two weeks in. I installed XFCE4 and was able to start it as root after much trouble (completely unrelated issue). However, I was unable to start it as a normal user. I have spent an entire day (or two) looking for solutions online, but these attempts have not been fruitful. Running startxfce4 results in a blank screen with a popup saying "Unable to load failsafe session". I have tried examining the messages sent to STDERR, but the messages present there are also found when running as root. I don't know what could be the issue.
Thanks in advance! |
Have you checked the X logs /var/log/Xorg.0.log?
The other regular one is permissions: /usr/bin/X & /usr/bin/Xorg (or whatever server) must be permissions 4755 I use less on Xorg.0.log, hit / and enter EE which finds errors only. They're the show stoppers. |
Hi, business_kid, thanks for the reply. I checked Xorg.0.log, and there was nothing out of the ordinary. There wasn't a single line indicating an error, so I don't think there's anything wrong with my Xorg configuration. In fact, I'm almost positive that Xorg is set up correctly, as I was able to get TWM up and running as both users.
As far as permissions go, I'm not sure which files/directories to check. The DM I'm trying to use is XFCE, so the command I issue to try and start it is "startxfce4". For now the commands "startx" and "startxfce4" produce the exact same results (though I'm not sure if they log the same information). Thanks! |
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ls -l /usr/bin/X |
The output of the command showed that /usr/bin/X points to /usr/bin/Xorg. I tried chmod-ing both /usr/bin/X and /usr/bin/Xorg to 4755, but that didn't change anything. Again, I don't think there is a problem with the Xorg server, as I was able to get TWM running by issuing "startx".
Thanks. |
The logs, then. Whatever is stopping it must be there. Programs don't bale out for no reason, and that is logged.
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Yes, I knew that the next logical step would be to look at XFCE's logs. I wasn't exactly sure where these were located, so I looked at what was being written to STDERR, with the following command:
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startxfce4 &> ~/.x-session-errors Thanks for your help thus far. |
/var/log/Xorg.0.log is a usual place. You can also try
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startx >~/x.err 2&>1 |
^ the '2&>1' could be crucial there. And, I don't know, I'd put the ampersand at the end of that line I think:
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startxfce4 > ~/.x-session-errors 2&>1 & Code:
startx > ~/.x-session-errors 2&>1 & |
OK, it looks like I'm getting somewhere. I ran the command without the ampersand at the end. Here is what I got:
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xauth: file /home/vr/.serverauth.1269 does not exist An interesting side note is that the command I ran actually left .x-session-errors blank, but it created a file called ~/1 which contained this output. Sorry for the delay in my post. Online school started this week, and as a result I have less time on my hands. Thank you for your patience. |
I had a bit of hassle recently with xfce4 not starting as luser. There's a bit on the GPG & SSH thing online
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Please show us the commands exactly as entered.
FWIW, I see another problem: Code:
/usr/bin/startxfce4: X server already running on display :0 FWIW, I believe you need to use either startx or startxfce4, not one after the other (I believe the latter is just a thin wrapper around startx or xinit). Also, don't run the Xorg server as root. It might create additional permission problems when later starting as normal user again - as pointed out in the log, too. |
business_kid: I ran both of those commands, but I got an error (a d-bus error, something to do with no $DISPLAYs running or something like that)
ondoho: The reason it says that X is already running is that I ran startx multiple times. As soon as I was presented with the "unable to load failsafe session" popup, I would exit the X session. As for the commands, I ran the last command in your post, without the final ampersand. At first, the .x-session-errors file was blank, I ran it multiple times, occasionally trying startxfce4 instead of startx. I finally figured out that the output was being written to a file called "1". I also ran the commands as both root and as the normal user. However, I will stop running Xorg as root, as you pointed out. |
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Probably one space too many somewhere. |
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